Rivers of London (book series)

The Rivers of London series is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan.

Short Stories

''Tales from the Folly''

Tales from the Folly, a short story collection, was published in November 2020.
It contains the following stories:
PART ONE: THE PETER GRANT STORIES

The Home Crowd Advantage
The Domestic
The Cockpit
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny
King of the Rats
A Rare Book of Cunning Device

PART TWO: THE OTHERS' STORIES

A Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Favourite Uncle
Vanessa Sommer's Other Christmas List
Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby
Moment One: Nightingale - London September 1966
Moment Two: Reynolds - Florence, Az. 2015
Moment Three: Tobias Winter - Meckenheim 2012

Graphic novels

The graphic novel series is cowritten by Andrew Cartmel. Initially published serially, the individual story arcs later appeared as graphic novels. All the graphic novels are published by Titan Comics.

Future installments

Aaronovitch has announced some forthcoming titles on his personal blog.
Aaronovitch has announced several works within the same fictional universe, but set outside the chronology of the main series. These works include a short story entitled 'Cock of The Wall' focusing on Petrus Aelius Bekemetus, who Aaronovitch describes as a "temple official/Londinium wideboy" – i.e. set in Roman London which Peter Grant briefly visited in the third book of the series.

Main characters

Police Constable, later Detective Sergeant; Peter Grant; an officer in the Metropolitan Police and the first official apprentice wizard in sixty years.
Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; head of the Folly and the last officially sanctioned English Wizard.
Lesley May; Police Constable colleague of Peter's in the Metropolitan Police.
Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Seawoll; Senior Investigation Officer at the Westminster Murder Investigation Team.
Detective Sergeant Miriam Stephanopoulos; case officer of the Belgravia Murder Investigation Team and 'right-hand man' to DCI Seawoll.
Detective Constable, later Detective Sergeant Sahra Guleed; attached to Belgravia Murder Investigation Team, often works with Peter when his cases are in London.
Dr Abdul Haqq Walid; world-renowned gastroenterologist and cryptopathologist.
Frank Caffrey; LFB Fire Investigator, ex-para and a key "associate" of the Folly.
Professor Harold Postmartin D.Phil. FRS BMon, "Postmartin the Pirate", Archivist and expert for the Folly.
Molly; The Folly's domestic helper, whose species is not entirely clarified, but she has been referred to as fae-like in the novel Foxglove Summer.
Abigail Kamara; Peter's annoyingly persistent teen-aged cousin, the de facto founding member of the Folly's Youth Wing. Lives at the same estate as Peter's parents.
Beverley Brook; "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of Beverley Brook, a small river in South London; in later books, Peter Grant's girlfriend and mother of his twin daughters.
Cecilia Tyburn Thames; aka Lady Ty, "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of the River Tyburn.
Oxley; god of the River Oxley, one of the "sons" of Father Thames and his chief negotiator.
Toby; Peter's dog, who can detect magic, indicated by yapping.
Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina ; Russian/Soviet witch, magical WWII veteran, later living on her own in Britain with a magically extended lifetime.
Indigo; a talking fox and master spy. Assigned to protect Abigail.

Stories listed by internal chronology

In a blog entry, the author has provided a list of the stories, by internal chronology.

Timeframe	Story title	Published
1920s	The Masquerades of Spring	27 August 2024
1957	Action at a Distance	Parts 1–4, October 2018 through January 2019, collected 12 November 2019
1966	Moment #1	included in Tales from the Folly
1960s	A Dedicated Follower of Fashion	Waterstones edition of False Value, included in Tales from the Folly
January to June 2012	Rivers of London
During the 2012 Summer Olympics	The Home Crowd Advantage	'London Edition' of Rivers of London and on his, included in Tales from the Folly
2012	Moment #3	included in Tales from the Folly
September to October 2012	Moon Over Soho
	The Domestic	Waterstones edition of Whispers Under Ground, included in Tales from the Folly
December 2012	Whispers Under Ground
	The Cockpit	Waterstones edition of Broken Homes, included in Tales from the Folly
March–April 2013	Broken Homes
Not given	Body Work	Parts 1–5 – 16 July 2015 through 20 November 2015, collected 29 March 2016
August 2013	Foxglove Summer
	What Abigail Did That Summer	18 March 2021
	The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny	Waterstones edition of Foxglove Summer, included in Tales from the Folly
	Night Witch	Parts 1–3 – 16 March 2016 through 18 May 2016, collected 1 November 2016
2014	King of the Rats	Waterstones edition of The Hanging Tree, included in Tales from the Folly
Undisclosed month in 2014	The Hanging Tree	3 November 2016 in the UK, 31 January 2017 in the US
Late July 2014	The Furthest Station	28 September 2017
	Black Mould	Parts 1–5 – 12 October 2016 through 8 March 2017, collected 25 July 2017
Undisclosed month in 2014	A Rare Book of Cunning Device	Audible special edition in 2017, included in Tales from the Folly
	Detective Stories	Parts 1–4, 7 June 2017 through 3 September 2017, collected 29 December 2017
2014	Moment #2	included in Tales from the Folly
December 2014	Favourite Uncle	Waterstones edition of Lies Sleeping, included in Tales from the Folly
	Cry Fox	8 November 2017, collected 26 June 2018
	Water Weed	Parts 1–4, June 2018 through September 2018, collected 18 December 2018
Prologue dated 14 November 2014. Main events summer 2015, based on reference to Michelle Obama's visit to a London school	Lies Sleeping	18 November 2018 in the UK
	The Fey and the Furious	25 November 2020
	The October Man	31 May 2019
January 2016	False Value	20 February 2020
	Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List	Waterstones edition of The October Man, included in Tales from the Folly
	Amongst Our Weapons	April 2022
	Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby	included in Tales from the Folly
	Cock of the Wall	unpublished as yet
	Monday, Monday	1 December 2021

On the page where the official order is given, the author writes: "One caveat – the short story The Home Crowd Advantage is obviously set in 2012 during the London Olympics, but because it was written before the chronology of the series had firmed up it contains a number of anachronisms. I've learnt to be philosophical about this sort of thing." Many of the stories give vague dates, and some of those dates conflict with the official series order. The short story collection Tales from the Folly includes a note above each story indicating which of the novels it is set between.

Reception

Sarah Shaffi wrote for The Guardian:
Reviewing the ninth book in the series, Amongst Our Weapons, in The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle wrote:

Adaptations

On 1 May 2019 it was announced that a television adaptation of Rivers of London would be produced by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's production company, Stolen Picture. However, according to Aaronovitch, the series is "still in the same state of permanent pre-pre-production".
On 7 July 2022, a new TV adaptation of the book series was announced, to be produced by Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films, and Unnecessary Logo—Aaronovitch's production company. On 2 November 2023, it was announced that John Jackson would be lead writer on the television adaptation. On 11 November 2024 it was announced that Sky Studios has acquired the adaptation, which will premiere on Sky in the UK.
At Dragonmeet convention in London, on 30 November 2019, it was announced that a role-playing game based on the book series would be published by Chaosium. The game was released in PDF first on 30 November 2022, with the print version released 17 April 2023